A Revolution In Saudi Arabia!
This is a cross-post by Shiraz Maher of the Focus on Islamism blog
Is it just me or has the whole world gone mad?
Yesterday the Spittoon revealed that Inayat Bunglawala – the Mr Bean of modern Islamism – wrote an article promoting gay rights and calling for greater tolerance of homosexuality within the Muslim community. Now, I’ve got news of a remarkable story from Saudi Arabia.
Last month the Kingdom inaugurated the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, a coastal town on the Red Sea about 50 miles north of Jeddah. There’s lots to marvel at, as their slick English language website reveals.
The entire 14 square mile site was built in two years, hosts one of only fourteen supercomputers in the world (named Shaheen after the Peregrine Falcon) and has invested $1.5 billion in state of the art technology including three-dimensional imaging facilities.
But then the Saudi’s have always had money – putting up impressive buildings and importing the latest gadgets is hardly that impressive. What matters about this university is not the infrastructure but the fact that King Abdullah has made it a staging post for his battle with Wahhabi clerics.
KAUST is the first coeducational university in Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah has banned the Kingdom’s much feared religious police – the mutaween – from entering its grounds. For the first time, there is a part of Saudi society where their authority does not reach. Traditionally the House of al-Saud has had to rely on the Wahhabi leadership to validate their rule. In return, the Royal Family has given them sweeping powers to impose Shariah law throughout the Kingdom. That marriage of convenience has been under constant pressure since 9/11, although this is the first sign that someone from the ruling family is prepared to weaken the iron grip of the mutaween.
In addition to being fully coeducational women are also allowed to drive and remove their headscarves on campus. Freemixing between the sexes will similarly be encouraged – something that can still land you in jail elsewhere in the Kingdom! Classes will also be delivered in English.
Naturally, there’s been a clerical pushback against these moves. Sheikh Sa’ad al-Shathry immediately resigned from the Supreme Committee of Scholars, the state-sanctioned body for Saudi’s Wahhabi clerics. He demanded KAUST’s closure, arguing:
Mixing is a great sin and a great evil. When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal [of]…education.
The fact King Abdullah is willing to challenge the Supreme Committee is encouraging. It simply wouldn’t have happened a decade ago. I spent 14 years in Saudi Arabia and have a vast array of contacts there. The general view of King Abdullah among most of them – and these are young Saudis keen for reform – seems positive. In short, he’s seen as a moderniser operating in a difficult climate.
The intricacies of this are explained by the peculiarities of the House of al-Saud. King Abdullah succeeded Fahd in 2005 after he died from pneumonia. However, his ascension to the throne was not straight-forward. Although Abdullah was next in line, he was only a half-brother to King Fahd. The next five behind him in the line of succession were all full-brothers of Fahd who were collectively known as the ‘Sudairi Six’, after the powerful clan from which they hailed. Abdullah, by contrast, was always seen as an outsider. That almost certainly fuelled his more progressive outlook and desire for reform – but has also meant that he faces a constant battle to drive through his initiatives against the powerful clique of Sudairi brothers who are much more conservative and arrayed against him.
During a trip to Saudi last year, when I reported on the new al-Qaeda rehabilitation centres the government has created there, one influential commentator told me, ‘the problem is that Abdullah is already 84 years old, he doesn’t have much time to make a difference. I keep praying that he has another 84 years in him’.
The creation of KAUST is a manifestation of Abdullah’s desire for change, and the aspirations of many young Saudis. The struggle for further reform is bound to be fiercely contested by Wahhabi clerics who still retain unprecedented powers over social life there. The future of the Kingdom however will be decided neither by the religious elite nor King Abdullah – but by the Sudairi’s and where they decide to position themselves.
*To see student life in KAUST for yourself, here’s footage of a party being held there during Ramadan last month. Unveiled women singing and dancing with men – I never thought I’d see the day!
Comments
| 6 October 2009, 6:03 pm |
For the record, a not-well-known fact. In order to buy himself a world-class university (a clear delusion, but that’s immaterial), King Abdullah asked for (a very generously paid) help from a brace of top world universities (list on demand…). They all made the condition that they will get involved in curriculum design, technical help etc. only on the condition that this will be a coeducational institutions with minimal accepted standards of openness. The condition has been met.
| 6 October 2009, 6:10 pm |
Does the accepted standards of openness include allowing Jewish students or (gasp!) Israeli students or teachers?
| 6 October 2009, 6:26 pm |
Happy days then…perhaps the King can pardon this girl:
saudi gazette oct 2009
JEDDAH – A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.
The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long.
The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed.
According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother’s last name. –
MADINA – Police and the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) have started carrying out Ministry of Interior orders to clamp down on persons wearing clothes that “do not conform with Shariah law” across the Kingdom.
First time offenders, Al-Watan said, would be handed in to police who would “advise and enlighten” them before taking pledges that their actions would not be repeated. Repeat offenders will be passed over to the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution ahead of being sent to court.
The judges said, however, that some persons charged could be sentenced to imprisonment or lashes of the whip, and described the clothes in question as “undignified”, adding that the judiciary would “not admit the testimony of people proven to have worn such clothes.”
Al-Saif and Al-Degailan were quoted by Al-Watan as saying that such behavior constituted “imitating the unbelievers, forbidden in Islam”.
There has been cooperation between imams, the police and the Hai’a in order to detain these violators during prayer,” the imam said.
| 6 October 2009, 6:50 pm |
As soon as this 84 year old kicks the bucket, the remaining clan will start fighting for the crown. In fact, they probably start their campaigns every time he catches a cold. And none of them will be able to win without the support of the clerics, so initiatives like this will be short lived.
| 6 October 2009, 7:19 pm |
I know Imperial in London is one – they had adverts out about 18 months ago which were quite tempting but unfortunately didn’t mention anything about being coeductional or openness. I wonder how many candidates they missed out on because of this. The most tempting part of the offer was that you would get to start your research at Imperial (and presumeably hope that the university would be extensively delayed).
| 6 October 2009, 7:25 pm |
Will the new university and its coeducational pllicy, with full freedom for women, survive its eponymous founder? What kind of guarantees could possibly have been written into its charter which could ensure its survival if it comes under attack in the post-Abdullah era?
| 6 October 2009, 7:56 pm |
الحمدلله رب العالمين! ِالله حيك ياشراز
| 6 October 2009, 8:49 pm |
The problem they have is that only a few of the Phd students are saudi students, and fewer is saudi women.
| 6 October 2009, 10:36 pm |
Looks great just hope they don’t teach their students that Jews are apes and pigs like other Saudi institutions.
| 7 October 2009, 12:38 am |
I can’t help but be reminded of the old joke about the Wee Frees.
| 7 October 2009, 6:37 am |
I teach in a college in Saudi Arabia; I’ve been in and out of this country since 1975, mainly as a college teacher.
One wishes KAUST well, of course, but the reality is that universities and colleges in in KSA have difficulty in hiring, and even more difficulty in retaining, normal people for the simple reason that teaching in Saudi Arabia is a career dead end and, at best, a nasty brown stain on a c.v.
Those willing to work in the educational sector in Saudi Arabia are:
-1- People who have failed to construct a proper career path for whatever reason and who need to bank a few Riyals before retirement a few years from now. I am among them.
-2- Queers, some furtive and a few very obvious mincing flamboyant queens in the finest English theatrical tradition.
-3- Nutters who convert to Islam, often more Catholic than the Pope. Some distinguish themselves by telling the Saudis that they ought to make more of an effort to be better Muslims. [You can imagine how much the Saudis enjoy and appreciate this.]
-4- Brits of Pakistani and Bengali origin, usually regarded with unconcealed racial contempt by most Saudis, since they are not easily to distinguish from labourers and servants at first glance.
-5- Weird old bachelor schoolmasters, some of whom are crossword addicts and many of whom have serious problems with personal hygiene.
-5- Really smart scholars, some young and some already distinguished to a greater or lesser degree, who will probably not complete 12 months once the reality of the step they have taken dawns on them.
| 7 October 2009, 1:39 pm |
Is there a student bar? Thought not.
Sadly this place must be near the top of a list of likely terrorist targets in Saudi Arabia.
B
| 8 October 2009, 9:00 am |
-2- Queers, some furtive and a few very obvious mincing flamboyant queens in the finest English theatrical tradition.
Wait what? Why do queers want to go to a country that kills gays?
| 8 October 2009, 9:33 am |
O Josh! You are SO innocent!
Saudi Arabia is discreet homo heaven in its own way, as any well-travelled homosexual will tell you!
Dubai is better still and there are recognised gay haunts much nicer than those which KSA has to offer, but all the major cities of the Kingdom have their well-established cruising areas.
I really do not think there will be many moslems having a supporting role with Maher. OK he has had the extreme experience, and is now on the opposite side. The question is why? I guess journalism pays more than the fundo’s!!